WEB DESK
Hours ahead of a planned mass burial of 35 Kuki-Zo people killed in violence, a bench of the Manipur High Court led by Acting Chief Justice on Thursday directed the Centre and state government to maintain status quo ante at the proposed burial site in a land belonging to Sericulture directorate near Torbung.
The bench of acting chief justice MV Muralidaran and justice A Guneshwar Sharma after a hearing at 6 am further directed all law enforcement authorities to ensure the maintenance of law and order around the proposed site of burial and directed all parties, including governments, to amicably settle the matter.
The HC also gave liberty to the Kuki-Zo people to approach the authorities for allotment of land for burial within one week.
The HC was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by International Meeteis Forum on August 2, seeking that the burial be stopped as it was being planned on government property.
The matter was mentioned before the bench of acting chief justice, who had assigned the matter to a bench of justice A Bimol and A Guneshwar Sharma.
However, in the morning, justice A Bimol had expressed his personal inconvenience and so the matter had been listed before the acting chief justice.
During the hearing, the state government lawyer mentioned the matter before the acting chief justice at his residence around 5 am. The urgency of the matter was explained and the matter was taken up as an unlisted one considering its nature.
At the hearing, the state government was represented by Deputy AG, H Debendra, the central government was represented by deputy solicitor general of India.